Historical Developments, Drivers of Change and Future Scenarios for Human Activities on Deception Island

Abstract

Deception Island is an active volcano with a flooded caldera and numerous glaciers, providing a unique habitat to very rare biological assemblies. Deception Island has a long history of human activity and is currently one of the most visited locations in the Antarctic. Natural, scientific and tourism values coexist in a small area. Some activities may interfere with others and can potentially compromise the future conservation of the island and its unique values. Under the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), regulatory mechanisms have been developed to provide different levels of protection to the island in order to minimise the inevitable environmental impacts and cumulative effects arising from existing human activities. Six Treaty parties manage Deception Island collectively as Antarctic Specially Managed Area (ASMA) No. 4 which has been identified as an exemplar of strategic environmental management. However, under the ATS the success of policies is highly dependent on the level of stakeholder acceptance. In this chapter, through a review of the environmental impacts, regulatory mechanisms, current trends and drivers for change we examine a range of possible management scenarios that combine different levels of environmental standards with varying likelihoods of stakeholder acceptance. Success of any of these policies will rely on information provided by monitoring programmes.